Doctors Treat 'Vampire' Who Attacked People for Blood

Turkish doctors report bizarre case

(Newser)
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A unique case out of Turkey: Doctors say they have treated a man with multiple personalities who was addicted to drinking blood—sort of a vampire, LiveScience reports. They caught on to the 23-year-old after he was arrested for biting and stabbing people in an effort to collect blood. He also had his father bring him bags of blood from a blood bank, according to the study in Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Doctors have traced the man's behavior to traumas dating back to his childhood.

His mother's tendency to "freak out" and attack him may have triggered his multiple personalities, or dissociative identity disorder. But his traumas in later life were more severe, including the death of his 4-year-old daughter, the killing of his uncle, and the sight of a murder in which "one of his friends cut off the victim's head and penis," the researchers write. Six weeks after his treatment, doctors found his blood-lust in remission but dissociative symptoms ongoing. The man also said his "drugs were merely sleeping pills, they would not cure him." (Read about a Serbian town that says a vampire is on the loose.)

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